Occupational Therapy Aides Salary and Pay
How much do Occupational Therapy Aides make?
In May 2024 the middle Occupational Therapy Aides worker earned $37,370 a year, the average was $41,850, and the survey counted 5,000 jobs. The 25th percentile is $34,840 and the 75th is $44,190.
The complete pay picture for Occupational Therapy Aides: 5,000 jobs nationally, a median of $37,370, and the state and metro tables that show where that median is beaten and where it is not.
Updated November 5, 2026
Salary converter for this occupation
Hourly figures use the BLS full-time convention of 2,080 hours a year. The converter loads this occupation's own ladder, median $37,370 first; type any offer into the custom box to price it against the same year.
The national wage ladder (BLS OEWS, May 2024)
| Pay level | Annual wage | Hourly wage |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $27,970 | $13.45 |
| 25th percentile | $34,840 | $16.75 |
| Median (50th) | $37,370 | $17.97 |
| 75th percentile | $44,190 | $21.25 |
| 90th percentile | $65,580 | $31.53 |
Percentiles answer the question a single average cannot: where would a given Occupational Therapy Aides offer sit among all 5,000 workers doing this job? The survey top-codes at $239,200+ and withholds unreliable cells, shown as n/p in the table.
Employment and concentration
The occupation employed 5,000 people in May 2024, 0.00% of every job BLS counted. California is the largest employer at 560 jobs, and the leading three states between them hold 26.8% of the workforce. Concentration peaks in Louisiana, whose location quotient of 3.45 says this work is 3.45 times as dense there as it is nationwide.
Read the ladder as a career path in numbers: $34,840 at the 25th percentile, $37,370 at the middle, $44,190 at the 75th. The full 10-to-90 range runs $37,610, a ratio of 2.3 to 1. Where a specific job offer lands on that range says more about the role's level than the occupation's headline median does.
Pay by state
Every state with a publishable estimate is in this table, 27 of them, sorted by jobs. The pay leader by median is North Carolina at $73,450; the jobs leader is California:
| State | Employment | Jobs per 1,000 | Location quotient | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 560 | 0.0 | 0.96 | $42,920 | $38,400 |
| Pennsylvania | 450 | 0.1 | 2.31 | $37,550 | $36,140 |
| Texas | 330 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $48,380 | $37,160 |
| Massachusetts | 260 | 0.1 | 2.22 | $42,160 | $38,690 |
| New York | 230 | 0.0 | 0.73 | $42,330 | $42,120 |
| Louisiana | 210 | 0.1 | 3.45 | $30,060 | $30,040 |
| Ohio | 210 | 0.0 | 1.15 | $37,640 | $36,280 |
| North Carolina | 200 | 0.0 | 1.24 | $66,090 | $73,450 |
| Missouri | 140 | 0.0 | 1.50 | $47,790 | $38,380 |
| Georgia | 130 | 0.0 | 0.80 | $39,880 | $37,550 |
| South Carolina | 130 | 0.1 | 1.77 | $38,640 | $34,080 |
| Wisconsin | 110 | 0.0 | 1.17 | $39,300 | $40,270 |
| Idaho | 90 | 0.1 | 3.27 | $27,170 | $24,660 |
| Tennessee | 80 | 0.0 | 0.78 | $34,730 | $27,110 |
| Mississippi | 70 | 0.1 | 1.81 | $33,400 | $27,230 |
| New Mexico | 70 | 0.1 | 2.51 | $60,270 | $67,890 |
| Oklahoma | 70 | 0.0 | 1.32 | $32,360 | $33,110 |
| Michigan | 50 | 0.0 | 0.34 | $37,950 | $37,320 |
| Oregon | 50 | 0.0 | 0.79 | $47,780 | $36,920 |
| Virginia | 50 | 0.0 | 0.41 | $43,130 | $40,610 |
| Florida | 40 | 0.0 | 0.13 | $58,160 | $70,660 |
| Nebraska | 40 | 0.0 | 1.36 | $44,230 | $43,800 |
| Colorado | 30 | 0.0 | 0.37 | $49,550 | $48,840 |
| District of Columbia | n/p | n/p | n/p | $42,050 | $38,220 |
| Indiana | n/p | n/p | n/p | $36,650 | $36,530 |
| Nevada | n/p | n/p | n/p | $49,200 | $61,870 |
| New Jersey | n/p | n/p | n/p | $53,870 | $40,550 |
The occupation in context
Ranked against all 826 published occupations, Occupational Therapy Aides stands number 762 by employment and number 751 by median pay. Inside its own major group, Healthcare Support Occupations, the group median wage is $41,590 across 17 detailed occupations, so this occupation pays 10% less than its group median, and it supplies 0.1% of the group's 7,448,000 jobs. In 15 of the 27 states with a published median, the state median beats the national median of $37,370, which is the single best quick test of whether this occupation's pay is set nationally or locally: a high count means local markets regularly outbid the national figure.
Metropolitan areas: where the jobs and the pay sit
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH is the largest metro employer with 230 jobs, 4.6% of the national total. Below, the biggest employers come first; the pay table after it only counts metros with 500 or more jobs in the occupation, so its leader is a real market and not a statistical artifact.
Largest metro employers
| Metropolitan area | Employment | Mean annual | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 230 | $41,550 | $37,290 |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 180 | $36,440 | $36,140 |
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 170 | $43,550 | $40,550 |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 100 | $44,160 | $41,550 |
| Columbus, OH | 90 | $29,130 | $22,500 |
| Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 90 | $39,710 | $38,160 |
| St. Louis, MO-IL | 90 | $49,600 | $38,380 |
| Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX | 80 | $44,890 | $40,510 |
| Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX | 60 | $63,240 | $46,330 |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 50 | $44,500 | $36,420 |
What the median pay looks like as a budget
Budget arithmetic on the median: $3,114 a month before tax, $1,437 biweekly, $719 weekly. Moving from the 25th percentile ($34,840) to the 75th ($44,190) is worth $9,350 a year, which is the realistic size of the experience and specialization premium inside this occupation. To turn any of these gross figures into spendable money, run them through the paycheck calculator; to weigh an offer against your current role, use the salary calculator; to test a raise against prices, the raise vs inflation calculator.
To place a real offer: a salary of $41,107 would sit between the median ($37,370) and the 75th percentile ($44,190), inside the top half but outside the top quarter of this occupation's ladder. An offer at the 25th percentile, $34,840, is $2,530 under the median, the typical size of the discount attached to entry-level or low-cost-market postings in this field.
Related occupations in Healthcare Support Occupations
Sibling occupations in Healthcare Support Occupations: Physical Therapist Assistants, Healthcare Support Workers, All Other, Massage Therapists, Medical Equipment Preparers, Orderlies, Occupational Therapy Assistants. Medians there are computed identically, so the comparison is apples to apples; the full set lives on the Careers hub.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Occupational Therapy Aides make?
The median annual wage is $37,370 and the mean is $41,850 in the BLS OEWS May 2024 estimates. The middle half of workers earn between $34,840 and $44,190 a year.
Which state pays Occupational Therapy Aides the most?
By median annual wage, North Carolina leads the state table at $73,450, based on 200 jobs in that state. By mean wage and by headcount the leaders can differ, so the state table on this page shows all three measures side by side.
How many Occupational Therapy Aides are there in the United States?
BLS counted 5,000 wage and salary workers in this occupation in May 2024, 0.00% of all U.S. employment in the survey. The largest state employer is California with 560 jobs.
What do the OEWS percentiles mean for Occupational Therapy Aides?
They mark points in this occupation's pay distribution. One worker in ten earns $27,970 or less and one in ten earns $65,580 or more; the median, $37,370, is the wage of the worker exactly in the middle of the 5,000 counted jobs.